AmieDD

LENS

We’re trying to test the range on it

though, because what happens when you

put a chip implant in here? Say this read

range is 5 mm; well now it’s in my skin,

so read range may only be 2 mm. You

want to test it really well before you put

it in your body.

HS What about props – you’re a

cosplayer, you must have used it for

something fun like that?

ADD We were talking with my friends

and they were just like, why don’t you

do something with your sword? So,

I have a cosplay sword and I want it

to light up when I hold it. Or, you

could do something based on an

accelerometer with all the

fancy microcontrollers. What

if I just have it that my hand

is the key, and it only lights up

when it recognises the key?

And I’m like, I should do

that, it would be fun. It’s a

very simple idea. It’s just like

taking copper tape, an LED,

and battery, and you can make

something light up. It’s cheap

and simple, and this is kind of

the same thing.

HS I thought Thor’s hammer would be a

good idea: get a strong magnet to hold it

down, which switches off when the right

person takes hold of the handle.

ADD That would be a fun thing to

do. And I guess not everyone’s going

to go and get a chip in their hand

because of cosplay, I’m just trying to

show that they’re not necessarily a

malicious thing.

I want to educate people on what it

is and what it isn’t. So, my dad’s

wife is very religious, and when I told

her about it, the first thing she said was

like, “666 mark of the beast!”

I have had some hate mail from a

religious group in Greece sent to my

house. Amy Danielle Dansby is my

real name; I own a house in Texas,

where all property ownership is public

record, so all you have to do is look up

public records of your house, and they

found me, and they sent me something.

They compared me to “Antichrist

technology like the Xbox One”. It’s kind

of a compliment. I laugh about it now,

but it’s different when things come to

your own home, to your family.

HS How affordable is it to get an implant

like this? Apart from yourself, the only

person I’ve met with one of these is a

Bitcoin millionaire.

ADD It was $99, US. And then the guy

who did it – he’s a body modification

person, so the sort of person you’d

get a piercing from, and he charged

$50. I think probably the prep time of

him sanitising everything, cleaning

everything by hand, probably took longer

than the actual procedure. He came up to

our makerspace and did it there.

HS Is there an online community where

people can share information about their

experiences of body hacking?

ADD Yes, the Dangerous Things Forum

has really good things. People share

information like, “Hey, I went for an

MRI with metal in my body. This is what

happened, this is what didn’t happen”.

I feel like everyone in the body hacking

community who ends up getting an

implant has different questions.

Some people will get one because

they’re intrigued, they’re an early

adopter. I like technology and new

things. It’s under the skin, but I can take

it out or get a new one if I want to, when

a new one comes out. So, that was my

question: can I get a new one? I want to

get an upgrade if a new one comes out, to

upload more information.

iPhone is a little more closed off than

Android, so I found, in that community,

people were creating an app to be able

to read the chip data, stuff like that. I

mean they’re helpful too, but I think the

Dangerous Things Forum has been a

more positive experience.

There are a few body hacking

[conventions] too. They’ll have medical

devices, there’s DARPA (Defense

Advanced Research Projects Agency),

which is for the US military...

HS Replaceability is a big

thing for any tech. You said

earlier that spectacles are

a body hack, but I get these

checked every two years, and

I can put them on and off. But

that’s also a pain, because they

fall off, and get lost, and get sat

on sometimes.

ADD It’s still something to

improve your life. It’s like when

someone needs a heart valve

replacement. Can they live without that?

Do they have to get that valve replaced

every however many years?

I see body hacking as anything that

you’re using to modify or enhance your

way of life. So, say you have a toothache

and you go to the dentist and get a filling

• it reminds me of Castaway with Tom
  Hanks, and he’s on the island and he has
  to break his tooth with the ice skate. That
  was such an awful thing for him, solely
  because he had a tooth infection. To have
  a dentist able to do that for you, and get it
  done without pain, is an enhancement to
  our way of living.
  And because everyone does it, like
  everyone has glasses, you don’t think of
  it as being bizarre or odd, right? You’re
  like, “Oh, I’m getting old, I need glasses”.
  What about getting laser surgery? That’s
  permanent, you weren’t born with it, and
  it’s an enhancement.

”

I got some hate

mail from a religious

group in Greece...

They compared me to

“Antichrist technology like

the Xbox One”

”